Tales, views, anecdotes, and perspectives of a Pinoy rural dweller who was educated to prepare for enslavement in a first-world country.

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Discrimination in the USA: A New Look At An Old Issue

While I was entertaining myself with Filipino migrant stories, I came across an article featuring a Pinoy special education teacher in Prince George's County Schools, Maryland, who was driven back home for working with an expired visa, and for losing a job in spite of his exemplary classroom performance.

The article also cited something about the plight of Pinoy teachers who were deployed in a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, school district.

Those are common stories that happen everywhere. When I came to the US in 2008, I, too, was unemployed for nearly a couple of months without any support from our agent who even harassed us regularly.

What struck me, however, are the new forms of discrimination. The legal pages of American History have already paved the way for equality, fair treatment, and mutual respect. However, bits and pieces of harassment are still evident, sometimes they penetrate into our skin. For about four years, I was in a rural high school. I have never submitted myself in such great servitude when I was in my home country. What is really 'interesting' is the fact that they hardly appreciate our hard work. My administrators never supported professional development. There are more situations that even prompted other Filipinos to leave instead of dealing face-to-face with those situations.

Going back to the article, there is another discovery that I unearthed. In the name of job, the inherent discriminating nature of people will really emerge. Below is a comment I copied verbatim from The World (theworld.org) in order to illustrate a point.

Tabitha Benson: I am an American math teacher who wanted to work for Baltimore City Public Schools. I am credentialed in a state that uses a different teacher test than the one Maryland uses. Baltimore City Schools told me that because I have taken a different test than the Praxis, they will not even interview me even though I have teaching credentials in a different state. I since found out that many if not most (or all) of their 600 Filipino teachers had not taken or passed their Praxis exams before being hired. In fact, I found proof of Filipino teachers who worked for YEARS in Baltimore City Schools without having ever passed their required Praxis exams. I have no doubt that Prince George County did the same thing. When they claim that the Filipino teachers are more qualified than American teachers that are available, they are LYING. American teachers are available. They prefer to hire cheap, easily controlled indentured servants over hiring Americans. The Filipino teachers stole our jobs. They should go home. (highlights supplied)

Discrimination: treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality or prejudice: racial discrimination; discrimination against foreigners. (source: answers.com)